Egypt, in Northern Africa, is not properly a part of the British Empire, for it has its own ruler (called the Khedive). But since 1881 British soldiers have guarded the country, and British officers have aided the Egyptian rulers. This "British occupation" has been of very great advantage to the country, for taxes have become less, justice has become more certain, order has been kept, and great public works have been built, so that the condition of the people has greatly improved. Especially noteworthy is a series of enormous dams, which pen up the waste waters of the river Nile, while it is in flood, and gradually let them out later, so that the desert lands become rich fields of cotton, sugar-cane and rice. Another great thing which they have done is the building of a railroad southward, which will meet one which is being built northward from Cape Colony. When this is completed it will be possible to go by rail for five thousand miles—through Egyptian desert and tropical jungle, where lions, elephants, and rhinoceroses abound—from Cairo in Egypt to the Cape of Good Hope. It is likely that the British will stay in Egypt for many years, and so that land may almost be counted as one of the countries over which they rule.
Then there is the great Empire of India, won for Great Britain by the East India Company, and now ruled by the British government. This is half as large as the whole of the United States, and has four times as many people as our country. Unlike most other British possessions, India had an old and very highly developed civilization when Europeans first went there. There was no room for new settlements, so the British still continue very few in that land. As a result, India has not been given the right of self-government, as have other lands named. But, even in India, some share in the government is now promised to the people.
Map of British Empire
These are the chief lands which make up the British Empire, outside the mother country herself: Canada; Australia and the neighboring islands of New Zealand; South Africa; and India. Besides these there are many islands, and small possessions on the continents of South America, Africa, and Asia, which cannot be shown on the accompanying map. War and commerce, the explorer's lonely courage, and the colonist's hardy enterprise, have all contributed to its up-building.
"Time, and the ocean, and some fostering star,
In high cabal have made us what we are,
Who stretch one hand to Huron's bearded pines,
And one on Kashmir's snowy shoulder lay,
And round the streaming of whose raiment shines
The iris of the Australasian spray,
For waters have connived at our designs,
And winds have plotted with us—and behold,
Kingdom on kingdom, sway on oversway,
Dominion fold in fold!"
What is it that binds together this vast empire? Is it the power of Great Britain's army and navy?
India and Egypt are partly held by military force, but this is not so of those great lands which are inhabited by men of the same blood and speech as the British themselves. It is affection that keeps them true to their imperial mother, and the knowledge that membership in that Empire makes them all safer and more prosperous. A poet has described Great Britain as a lion, and the self-governing colonies as its full grown cubs, ready to come at the lion's call to its assistance:
"The Lion stands by his shore alone
And sends, to the bounds of Earth and Sea,
First low notes of the thunder to be,
Then East and West, through the vastness grim,
The Whelps of the Lion answer him."
But what does this growth of England, and the spread of its power through the British Empire, mean for the rest of the world? Does it mean war, and conquest, and tyranny, and oppression?
No, it means peace, and good order, and above all the spread of free institutions.
Great Britain has given the world improved machinery, and cheap goods of many sorts. Her merchants and sailors, more than those of any other nation, have helped to knit the whole world together into one society. The food upon our tables, the clothes which we wear, and the furnishings of our houses are brought together from all over the world largely by their enterprise. She has made the English language the most widely spoken tongue in the world, and has given to those who speak it a priceless literature. In the days following the Reformation in religion, England was the chief champion of Protestantism, when it seemed that the Protestant religion was about to perish. In more modern times, Great Britain has been foremost in putting down slavery everywhere, and in movements of bettering the world's conditions.
Most of all, we owe to Great Britain the spread throughout civilized lands of such rights as trial by jury, free speech, and constitutional government. It was the English people who first discovered and established these rights, and it was from England, and English-speaking peoples, that the rest of the world received these priceless gifts.
Topics for Thought and Search
Make a list of the chief events of Victoria's reign.
Find out what you can about the Boer War. What were the causes of the war? How has Great Britain treated the Boers since the war?
Find out what you can about the government of Canada. Compare it with the government of the United States.
Read an account of Captain Cook and his voyages.
Ought Great Britain to withdraw from Egypt? Give your reasons.
Ought Great Britain to give "home rule" to India? Give your reasons.
What can Great Britain do to draw her colonies closer to herself?